How to Roast and Peel Chestnuts

Who needs an open fire to roast chestnuts? You can do it yourself using your oven! It’s a relatively simple process, though peeling them does take some time and patience.

Did you know that chestnuts are sometimes referred to as the “bread of the mountain”? This is because, unlike other fatty tree nuts, chestnuts are much higher in carbohydrates. In northern Italy, before the arrival of corn, ground chestnuts were a key component in making polenta. In early 19th century America chestnuts were very common; so common, in fact, that farmers would allow their pigs to fatten up by eating the extra chestnuts that had fallen to the forest floor. The high quality lumber produced from chestnut trees was often used in furniture making and construction. During the first half of the 1800s a blight that arrived with Asian-imported trees nearly wiped out the American chestnut. Those trees were eventually replaced with heartier and more resistant chestnut trees, which are the type we see most often today. Chestnuts are now viewed as more of a seasonal holiday luxury. If you’ve ever traveled to New York City, you’ve surely noticed the sweet smell of chestnuts being roasted and sold by street vendors. It’s intoxicating!

Nowadays, you can generally find pre-roasted and shelled chestnuts at most major supermarkets. If you’d rather take on the task of making them at home, I’ve created the following step-by-step tutorial that will help you along the way. The delicious aroma that will fill your kitchen is an added bonus! Keep in mind that roasted chestnuts are best eaten right away, as they mold and spoil fairly quickly.

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Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. To prepare your chestnuts, grasp them firmly between your thumb and index finger and carefully make a long slice across the rounded top of the chestnut with a sharp serrated bread knife. Careful, the shell is slippery. You should be able to slice it in one motion. If you have trouble cutting through, use gentle sawing motions, don't force the blade down or you run the risk of cutting your hand.

Be sure to cut all the way through the shell.

Once all of your chestnuts have been cut, place them into a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a simmer.

Once the water begins to simmer, remove the chestnuts from the water using a mesh strainer or slotted spoon and transfer them to a baking sheet.

Roast for 15 minutes, or until the shells begin to peel back where you cut into them.

Remove the chestnuts from the oven. Place them into a bowl and cover with a towel for 15 minutes. Allowing them to steam a bit will make them easier to peel.

Once the 15 minutes have passed, simply pull on the shell and slip the chestnut out. Some will be easier to peel than others. Both the outer shell and the tough brown skin around the chestnuts should be peeled off. If you run into any nuts that seem gooey or disintegrated inside, it means that they have spoiled. Chestnuts tend to have a short shelf life, spoiled nuts should be tossed.

Voila! You now have freshly roasted and peeled chestnuts. They're not the easiest things to peel, but these tender, sweet and fragrant nuts are a welcome treat during the winter months.

Please make sure you pierce them first — either the way listed here or by cutting an X in the bottom. A good friend (and gourmet cook) forgot to do it once — the blew up all over her oven. She sent me an email that was so funny it circulated through 2 cars of the commuter train!!!!

We always cut an X on the chestnut and boiled them, pealed them (I helped as a kid, eating as many as I peeled!), broke them into pieces and added them to our cornbread dressing! It was delicious, although good chestnuts were often hard to find and took effort to peel once cooked. They were worth the effort!

If you don’t buy them while they are still fresh, you will find that many are bad or molded when you crack them. If they feel very hard or the shell is loose, they tend to be spoiled. I got to bad batches at two different stores this season.

Roasted Chestnuts were my #1 favorite street food when I lived in NYC. Soft pretzels ran a very close second and were available all the time. I’m looking forward to recreating this delicious treat with its fond memories.

Interesting way to do it; I’ll try it to see if they’re easier to peel this way than the way we’ve done it for decades. We’ve always cut an “x” on the flatter side of the shell, oiled a rimmed cookie sheet, & baked at 375 or 400 for maybe 10 or so minutes (when we smell them cooking, we check them), until the shells peel back. Then as soon as they aren’t too hot to handle, we peel & eat.
A couple of years ago, I bought a gadget I’d read about called the chesnutter. It cuts the “x” and now my nephew loves to do the job! So much easier than when my parents used to use a paring knife.

Hi Tori!
Like other who commented, we’ve always cut an “x” on the side. We never boiled them. Is that to help open up the shells or does the boiling serve another purpose?

Putting them in the oven always did a great job opening up the shells. As a kid I remember my dad rigging up an old coffee can…punching holes in the bottom, and roasting the chestnuts in the fireplace.

Also, like a few of the others who left comments, I have fond memories of my parents buying me the chestnuts from the carts in NYC.

Hi Dave, the quick boil helps to create steam and separation inside the shell, making some of the nuts with stickier shells easier to peel. I prefer the cross cut to the X because it’s less fussy and produces the same result, without as much risk of slipping and hurting your hand.

Thanks for the simmering trick. I soak them in water but I don’t think I kept them long enough or I cut them deep enough as well. Last batch we made ended up exploding in the oven. Will try simmering next time.

It’s snowing in Atlanta! A rare treat which I compounded with some chestnuts I picked up at a Korean market. I found your post and will poach and toast them this evening. As a New York transplant, I miss the street vendors like the Dickens.

Took five or six look-sees on Google search for ‘roasting chestnuts’ to get this which is close to the “recipe” I remember from when I was much younger. Thanks so much! And esp. thanks for warning on how perishable chestnuts are — unlike other nuts which have a little longer shelf life!

Wow! This worked great. I love chestnuts and have 5 very productive trees. I always gathered them and then gave most of them away because they were so hard to peel. Now my neighbors and family will have to get them somewhere else. I gathered my chestnuts and took them out of the burrs about 3 weeks ago. Then I put them in chip baskets and left them in my unheated sun room. It has been warm here in northwest PA. I did not have one rotten chestnut. Now I am going to use my Seal-A-Meal and freeze them.

I was just thinking the other day if chestnuts could be frozen. Do you freeze them before you cook them or after they have been cooked and peeled? I am excited to try this method of cooking chestnuts. My husband has always boiled them and my father roasted them. I think this combo will be perfect!

I have wondering for years now, how the ny venders get there chesnuts so rich and creamy. Thanks to your post, it has to be the simmer step, cause like everybody else I baked for 30 min or so and most were good, but never like New Yorks. Can’t wait to try this way tomorrow…cheers

Since finding Tyler Florence’s Chestnut Sausage Sage Dressing, chestnuts are a staple at Thanksgiving. Trying out the water thing since we have had bleeding fingers from trying to shell these bad boys in the past! (Not to mention the scratches all over your fingertips. The shells hurt so much!) MY tip?! Score them with a wine bottle opener tip. You can hold it like a paring knife and once you pierce the skin there is nothing exposed to cut you. Just drag it through the length of the shell. So easy. Thanks for the recipe. Crossing my fingers!

.Like many others before me, I have fond memories of the chestnut vendors in NYC. They always came in a tiny brown paper bag that could only fit oh seven or eight. But, they were soooo good. Living in Florida now for years but always try to roast some chestnuts around Xmas for old times sake and cause i still miss NY after all this time. Thanks for the simmering tip, Tori. It definitely makes them easier to,peel! Happy holidays, everybody.

Okay, what did I do wrong? Raw chestnuts seemed optimal as you describe (I collected them from the ground around a tree myself, so I know they’re fresh); could barely knife thru the shells before simmering, but succeeded after. Roasting only resulted in very bitter nuts, and shells do not peel back as you describe or show in the image. Hard to carve away from the nutmeat. Maybe different variety of chestnut, not intended to be edible? Thx for any tips you might suggest.

Some chestnuts are edible and some (Horse Chestnuts) are not. Without seeing them and the tree from which they fell, I can’t say. You can do an internet search for a picture of each and maybe you can figure it out.

It was the first half of the 19th century, guess that was a typo on the 8. Some people still alive have tasted American chestnuts. Also they were different and special, both the timber–taller–and the nut, so it’s not just la-di-da and replaced with something better. That’s why many people are working to restore the American chestnut. The Oriental ones aren’t as tall and can’t take its place in the forest. It was once 1 of every 4 trees in the main Eastern woodlands, and there was something like 10 times the game because of that. The woods must’ve been way more alive! One last thing–others, like Martha Stewart, said 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course, the time may vary accordingly. Only saying it matters to not blow a lot of energy without even knowing it.